Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Frontier Developments
Genre: Pet Simulation
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

If you’re the kind of person who’s ever wondered how much fun you could have with a baby tiger without the fear of being either scratched to death or arrested (and no, I’m not labeling you), then you should check out Kinectimals. I bought this game with my four year old daughter, Leela, firmly in mind, but I can’t lie to you. I’m just going to confess straight away and clear my gaming conscience by telling you that I’ve played it more than she has.

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Tomorrow will see “the biggest, most ambitious update in the history of Team Fortress 2” go live. The Uber Update, as Valve is calling it, will include expanded gear for both the Heavy and the Spy, plus a Payload map dubbed Barn Blitz.

“We’ve got a lot to announce as we get closer to the update’s release this Thursday, June 23rd,” reads the statement on the Team Fortress site, so keeping watching as the details are revealed.

Looking for a bit of a change for your Mortal Kombat experience? Fans who have downloaded either the Mortal Kombat Compatibility Pack or the Skarlet DLC pack, can now download the Klassic Sektor and Cyrax skins for free. While these skins are nice eye candy, gamers will have to be satisfied with just the look, as the characters will not receive an added Klassic Fatality.

Halo Anniversary will support Kinect, says Microsoft Game Studios head man, Phil Spencer. He also went on to say that eventually all first-party titles would support the device in some way.

“As a first-party, we believe Kinect will be important to all genres of games, be it racing games with Forza, combat games like Ryse, even games like Halo Anniversary has Kinect integration,” Spencer told Gamespot.

He didn’t mention what form this Kinect support would take, but don’t discount full game control. This Ghost Recon Future Soldier E3 Kinect video demonstrates that this is a possibility.

Sources close to Rockstar Games have hinted that the next installment of the GTA franchise is already getting its final touches. A 2012 release is pretty likely, and the game itself is looking vast. Speculation abounds as to the setting of the new game, and evidence from as far back as last December, suggests that the game is being codenamed Rush.

Rockstar’s big co-boss, Dan Houser, has provided the first official acknowledgment that Grand Theft Auto 5 is in the works. In a recent statement, Houser said that they are working on the city first, and then they will work on the characters. A set of casting calls from a talent agency point to the game as being set in a “Los Angeles-like” metropolis, with a colorful cast of California characters being filled for a voice-over session.

John Carmack, head of id Software, has revealed that the studio is already discussing the potential for the fifth installment of Quake.

“We went from the Quake 2 and the Quake 4 Strogg universe. We are at least tossing around the possibilities of going back to the bizarre, mixed up Cthulhu-ish Quake 1 world and rebooting that direction,” Carmack stated. “We think that would be a more interesting direction than doing more Strogg stuff after Quake 4. We certainly have strong factions internally that want to go do this. But we could do something pretty grand like that, that still tweaks the memory right in all of those ways, but is actually cohesive and plays with all of the strengths of the level we’re at right now.”

The next game due out from the id camp is Rage which has recently been delayed. Then it’s Doom 4, so could Quake 5 be on the horizon after that?

Take a peek at this exciting, behind-the-scenes trailer for Treyarch’s new map pack. The teaser shows the designers offering in-game tips for each of the new multiplayer maps (Hangar 18, Silo, Hazard and Drive-In). It also provides us a look at the new Zombie infested map, Shangri-La. The map pack debuts on Xbox Live June 28, and day-one downloaders will be treated to a double-XP weekend starting July 1.

Zelda fans eagerly await the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. While they wait, one question has been gaining momentum. Will the new game get ported over to the Wii U? According to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, that’s a negative. Fils-Aime has clearly stated that the new game was built specifically around the Wii controller.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword arrives for the plain old Wii this holiday season.

An unfocused unofficial image of what appears to be GameStop promotional material, posted by Unofficial Call of Duty: Black Ops Forums user Steam89, seems to suggest that new DLC is coming soon. From straining your eyes trying to decipher the image, it seems Activision is readying a third map pack for Black Ops supposedly called Retaliation, which will add four new multiplayer maps and one zombie level. A release date is not shown in the cropped image, but the forum poster says the pack will arrive June 28.

The wait feels like forever, but at last Mortal Kombat‘s character add-on DLC series will begin next week. First up is Skarlet, and she will be closely followed by an additional three characters at unspecified future dates. Skarlet looks like a tough cookie, with some nasty stabbing moves, and some fine red boots. She will be coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace June 21 for an as of yet unspecified price, followed by Rain, Kenshi and a mystery character.

Rise of Nightmares is the upcoming Kinect title from Sega. Opinion is divided, however, as to whether any screaming it provokes is due to the content or the actual game design. The game is a member of the survival horror genre that is a cross between Resident Evil and the Saw/Hostel franchise of films. Zombie ballet dancers, puppets and various other creepy assailants will try to block your escape from some torture chamber. It’s due to be released this summer, and you can check out some of the gameplay in this video.

Just out on the web is a new teaser trailer for Frogwares’ upcoming adventure title, Testament of Sherlock Holmes. Running in at just under a minute long, this video gives us a good idea of the graphics and visual style of the game. Developer Frogwares has seriously upped the budget for this 360, PS3 and PC release, providing a big bump in graphical fidelity as you’ll see. We also get to see some of the game’s environments and various NPCs. It is also the first Sherlock game made specifically with console gamers in mind.

The Dungeon Siege III PC demo has been released, and you can download it now from Steam. According to the listing, the 1.5GB demo features both single-player and co-op gameplay modes. Two out of the four characters are available to play: Lucas the Guardian and Anjali the Archon. Reports from those who have managed to get their hands on it indicate that the third installment is quite different from its successors, and focuses more on co-op play and decisions, and less on loot gathering and managing NPCs. The full game arrives June 21.

Continuing on from the 2009 movie reboot, Star Trek: The Game will see Kirk and Spock blasting their way to save the galaxy. The story is being penned by God of War series writer, Marianne Krawczyk. The PS3 edition will come with Move support and an “authentic Phaser Move controller.” Prior to launch there will also be some Sony-exclusive DLC. The title should be warping its way to you during the summer of 2012 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Ponder no more! Overkill’s Payday: The Heist is a game about armed robbery. A team-based first-person multiplayer shooter, the title launches digitally for the PC and PS3 late this summer. Its four player team-based gameplay has been likened to that seen in Left 4 Dead. The game features “dynamic scenarios,” which means it doesn’t behave the same way across multiple play throughs. When you and your team of four execute a plan, you’ll encounter different behaviors from civilians and the police sent in to stop you. Overkill revealed that the six scenarios will not just include bank robberies, but raids on an embassy, a drug lord’s panic room, and several other sites.